The full moon hung in the sky, illuminating the ground below. The forest, unlit by the moon, sat silent in the night. All the animals were either asleep or dead. A single young man walked slowly through the forest certain to keep vigilante of his surroundings. He stopped and knelt down, checking the ground.
"Blood..." He spoke to no one but himself, as he so often did during his jobs. "Still fresh." He stood and surveyed his surroundings. "Where are you. Hurry up and get out here so I can kill you and go warm up." He pulled his long red scarf over his mouth and continued on his way through the forest, following the path of broken trees and the smell of charred wood.
He soon came to a small clearing, lit by the moon. In the middle of the clearing, plain to see was a large beast, about the size of elephant or Rhinocerous, with three heads. One head sniffed the ground, probably looking for more prey. The second head kept a careful eye on it's surroundings while the third ate a small boar. The young man ran his hand through his lovely silver hair which shone in the moonlight which peaked through the trees into the clearing.
"A medium sized cerberus, just like the mayor said. They so rarely escape from the demon beasts land, never thought I'd be able to fight one." The young man reached into his dark coat and pulled out a small, rectangular case. He removed the top of the case and pulled out a card. It was the same size and shape as a playing card, but had a picture of a young girl on it. The boy threw the card to his side. "Come forward, Alice."
The card burst into a small orb of light. The light dissipated and a young girl slowly lowered to the ground, her hair blowing in the wind left by the spell. She touched the ground and reached up to fix her hairband and make her rabbit ears stand straight. She reached down to her hip and pulled up an old fashioned stop watch.
"It's late, are we working?" She asked innocently.
"Yeah, Alice. A medium sized cerberus, right out there." He pointed to the cerberus. "Let's send him into the rabbit hole." Alice grasped the skirt of her long, modest, blue dress and lifted it up, curtsying to the young man.
"Alright, let's have some fun." The young man pulled several more cards from the case and palmed them before putting it back into his coat.
"Let's go." The two jumped from their hiding place into the clearing. The second head immediately barked, telling the other two that new prey had arrived. The young man flipped his hair confidently as he slipped one of his cards between his index and middle finger. Alice held her hands up and playing cards appeared between her fingers, three per hand. She charged the cerberus ahead of the man. The cerberus raised it's paw and swiped at the girl. She easily avoided the attack by jumping over it. As she was coming down from the jump, she slashed at the beast with the cards between her fingers leaving a large scar on it's middle head. The head reared back in pain as the other two attempted to bite her. She gracefully danced around the attacks, slashing the two heads as they came close to her. She jumped back putting a distance between her and the beast.
"Alice!" The young man called, still in his initial position. "It's a bit to tough for the cards, you get your specialty ready, let me distract him." Alice turned and curtsied again, jumping back towards the young man just as the cerberus tried to swipe her with it's claw. She landed behind him and knelt, folding her hands in front of her chest. The young man slipped the remaining cards from his palm into his hand and spread them like a poker hand. He threw one of them into the air, it burned and a large bolt of lightning jumped from it's position to the beast, causing it to jump back in pain.
"Weak." He muttered to himself as he let his eyes wander to the moon. "Isn't there anything out there that can make me work for a victory?" The cerberus recovered from the shock and charged towards the two. Without looking away from the moon, he released a card and let it fall to the ground several feet in front of him. "Spire Drive." He said as the card burst into a dozen stalagmites just as the cerberus ran over top of it. The young man yawned as the cerberus remained frozen in place, a huge amount of shock hitting it's system due to the severe pain caused by being impaled a dozen times.
"Finish this Alice." Alice unfolded her hands and raised them to the sky. A large dark hole appeared below the cerberus.
"Now," She said calmly, in a soothing voice. "Into the rabbit hole." Thousands of ethereal hands shot up from the hole dragging the struggling cerberus down into the blackness. As soon as the cerberus was out of sight, the hands receded and the hole closed. The young man sighed.
"We had to track it for so long and that's all it was capable of? Useless." Alice approached the young man, hands folded in front of her chest. She looked up at him expectantly.
"I killed it, master." She said sweetly. He smiled gently and reached forward, rubbing her head. Alice smiled and blushed at the gesture.
"Good job."
Alice giggled innocently. "I got praised." She sang happily.
"Now let's go back." He said. Alice nodded and glowed, returning to the form of a card which sought out the young man's hand. The young man took one last glance at the full moon which hung in the air this night, before turning and leaving the forest.
